Categories Added To Forum

[Daniel Hatadi]

Those clever people at Ning have added the ability to break the forum down into categories. If you click on the Forum tab above, you will now see categories called Crimespace News, The Main Bar, Reading Room, the Writer's Den, and the Schmooze Lounge. You'll see a description of the purpose of each category once you click through.

I arrived at these particular categories by trawling through the traffic in the main forum, as well as the member survey. Since a decent proportion of members are readers, I think it's fair to cordon off the writing discussions, as well as the talk on promotion and marketing. The Main Bar is up for grabs in terms of topics, but there will still be a separate Events section for member announcements. The News section here will be Crimespace related items only, as I'm the only one allowed to post to it.

I'm hesitant to add more categories, mostly due to the amount of daily traffic. I don't want to turn this into a list of forty-two categories with only one post in each. But I am open to suggestions, so drop a reply here if you have any.

I've gone through the whole of the forum (yes, the whole forum!) and moved posts into appropriate categories. Feel free to move your own around and make sure to choose a category for any new ones. If in doubt, go for The Main Bar.

Another useful function can be seen by clicking on any of the category headings on the forum page. At the top is a dropdown list which lets you sort posts by Latest Replies, Newest Discussions, or Most Popular.

Any questions, comments, suggestions, please reply to this thread and I'll talk to the angels and devils on my shoulders to see what we can do.

[Gerald So]

Organization, gotta love it. What about a category for discussions of crime TV and films?

[Daniel Hatadi]

Right now, I'd have to say no, but I'll be watching the forums and keeping track of requests. I just don't think there are enough discussions on this, and I also want the focus to be on books. The Main Bar's always up for grabs, unless your topics suit the other categories more.

[J.D. Rhoades]

Excellent idea.

[Barbara Fister]

Very cool. Any chance an RSS feed could be added to each? Picky, picky... only when I feed all of the forums, they tend to make me jump around a lot. I'd love to be able to just check the reading room, or the news. Only knowing me, I'll be reading them all, anyway.

[Daniel Hatadi]

Barbara, if you click on each category heading, you'll find a separate RSS feed at the bottom.

[Barbara Fister]

Big duh. Thanks.

[Anne Frasier]

very nice! i like how the topics stay on the main page much longer rather than rolling over like a blog post.

[Daniel Hatadi]

Funny, I prefer listing by newest discussion. But now everyone can choose for themselves. :)

[Joy Calderwood]

Thank you, Daniel. I like this new set-up.

You go away for a few days and look how much changes!

[Julie Lomoe]

Daniel, this sounds great. Thanks for all the time and thought you're investing in this site.